Episode details

World Service,29 Jul 2025,26 mins
Marina Tabassum: Designing London's Serpentine Pavilion
In the StudioAvailable for over a year
Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum won the commission to create the 25th Serpentine Pavilion – a temporary summer structure for London’s Kensington Gardens. A meeting place in the Royal Parks, A Capsule in Time will also be used for literary and musical events. The arched wooden structure’s translucent panels allow dappled light through, like the South Asian Shamiyana awnings which inspired Tabassum’s design. The side panels move along tracks to change the shape of the space, and at its centre there is a gingko tree, which will be replanted at the end of summer. Marina talks to Erika Wright about how she wanted make a space for the diverse people who use the parks in the summer.
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